NAPIER NOTES.

Hastings Standard, Issue 59, 4 July 1896, Page 2

NAPIER NOTES.

[From Our Own Correspondent.] Napier, .July 8. There is a slight difference between the H.B. Rugby Union and the Recreation Ground Company. The long suffering public has risen up in print and expressed its disinclination to pay the exorbitant sum of Is for admission to the Rec. to witness club football matches. The Union accordingly approached the company on the matter, the latter agreeing to the proposal of a reduction, provided the Union took the risk of any loss that might be engendered by the change. At a recent meeting of the football authorities it was decided to offer the company £SO for the rest of the season, provided the season was extended nineteen days, and that the Union should not be pressed for the money until after the Otago match on September 9th. Last night the Rugby Union received a communication from the Secretary of the company containing a curt refusal. It started with the the preamble "at a meeting of directors," &c., and gave no reason for the unyielding position taken up. A very warm discussion followed, one member stating that two at least of the ground directors knew nothing of any meeting at which the question was discussed. The Rugby Union has now no option but to continue the extortionate charge of one shilling at the gates. . It has been suggested to me that both in Napier and Hastings, before the winter nights are ovej, the various organisations of young people should arrange for " mass meetings " of their members and arrange for various local speakers —not parsons to address them on the most important subjects of the day; not dealing with them from any narrow political point of view, but in the broadest and most generous sense. Speaking with some little knowledge of "the matter, and of how it is managed in the other colonies, I should say that much good might result from such an arrangement. If the gatherings were successful in Napier and at Hastings, we might exchange speakers, as the preachers exchange pulpits. As I was leaving the Theatre Royal last evening I unintentionally overheard a short conversation between two of our lads who evidently have not grasped the idea of opera. Said one to the other: "Well, Jack, how did yer like it '?" (meaning the opera). " Oh, pretty well. It was good ; yes, it was good." His companion expectorated, and then said: "There was too much bloomin' singing in it for me!" What I said about the breakwater contractor some days since will be fresh in the minds of your readers. I regret to have to add to that to-day, and to tell your readers of a state of things which cannot be regarded as anything but cruelly bad to the men here "who have been made the sufferers. It appears that the contractor returned from Wellington a day or two since, bringing with ium a number of

men whom he had put on to the work at the breakwater. Eight of the old hands have been paid off with no other excuse than that the contractor does not require their services any longer, The men discharged are amongst the best of the hands, and these are now turned out to make room for newcomers, while the streets are already haunted by numbers of men who cannot obtain work. At the S.M. Court this morning Mr Turnbull dismissed two first offending drunkards with a caution. George Redmond charged (1) with having been found unlawfully in a dwelling house; (2) with the theft of two pairs of trousers, the property of Percy Kelly, was sentenced to one month's imprisonment on each charge, sentences to run concurrently. Two other valueless cheques made by prisoner George Henry Williams have been discovered. From present indications there will be a crop of charges preferred against the young man on the 10th inst. It says little for the energy of the people in Hawke's Bay when the Plumpton Coursing Club has to import its hares from Canterbury. A further consignment arrived by the Waihora to-day. It may interest the Hastings residents to know that the thousands of hares running in the Heretaunga, Marckakaho districts are worth 8s each to the Plumpton Club if caught alive.